


Small Decisions Have Big Consequences

by jacquelee



Series: Star Trek Voyager Without White Guys [1]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Community: allthingsfandom, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 17:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6248758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacquelee/pseuds/jacquelee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Lieutenant Stadi had broken Paris' nose after he came on to her? What if she had been suspended and he had been installed as Voyager's pilot when the Caretaker took them to the Delta Quadrant? What if he had died and Lieutenant Stadi had survived? Here is my answer to all these questions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Decisions Have Big Consequences

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a challenge at [allthingsfandom](http://allthingsfandom.livejournal.com) for the bingo prompt Difficult Decision.

Lieutenant Stadi was not comfortable. Not at all. Being summoned into the Captain's ready room before even starting on your first tour under her was definitely not the way she wanted to begin her duty on Voyager.

Not that she regretted for a second breaking Tom Paris' nose after he had sexually harassed her on their way to the ship. But it definitely led to difficulties, not the least of them being congratulated by the first officer and the doctor for "taking a stand" against Tom Paris being here, when in reality she had no problem with him as a person who had made mistakes, she just couldn't stand misogynist assholes. 

Which, coincidentally was exactly what both the doctor and the first officer were too – what a lucky ship had she been assigned to, yay. Being congratulated by them was very much uncomfortable. 

But having to stand in front of the Captain and trying to justify physically attacking a member of her crew was much worse, even if he was just a temporary member and only here as an observer. 

When she had entered the room, Captain Janeway had looked at her for a few seconds from behind her table. Now she got up and walked up to her, stopping right in front of her, standing quite a bit too close for comfort. Lieutenant Stadi swallowed hard. 

"Lieutenant Stadi, am I correct in assuming that what my doctor tells me is right and you broke Mister Paris' nose?" 

"Yes, Captain." 

"Am I further correct in assuming that there was no immediate threat to your physical well being that justified such a behaviour but only an indiscretion, which, while bad, could have been resolved without violence?" 

"Yes, Captain." 

"And I think I am also right in assuming that you know the punishment for breaking a fellow crew member's nose." 

"Yes, Captain." 

"Which leaves me with the difficult decision of how to deal with this, especially since it is important for the upcoming mission to have an experienced pilot. But I can't just ignore one of my senior officers physically assaulting someone, no matter who. I hope you understand that." 

"Yes, Captain." 

At that point Captain Janeway sighed and the tension visibly left her body. It was easy to see that the Captain was sympathetic but didn't really have any choice. This truly was a difficult decision. If she showed leniency, she would be seen as a weak leader but if she didn't, she was left without her most experienced pilot for a pivotal mission. 

Unless she gave that station to Mister Paris. Which did not make the decision easier, on the contrary, especially seeing Mister Paris' standing with quite a lot of the crew. Stadi very much understood the Captain's dilemma and was far too aware of the fact that she had caused it. She looked down on the floor, it was too hard to look the Captain in the eye. 

Captain Janeway sighed again.

"Well, fortunately, as Captain, I do have the power to grant you pardon. I know people will see that as mistake but I don't care. I cannot see any specific reason to punish you, especially since Mister Paris is not an officer and not a permanent crew member but only here as an observer and since he freely admits to having committed that indiscretion."

Stadi looked up, surprised by how certain the Captain sounded in light of how difficult this decision was. The Captain held up a hand. 

"Mind you, there will have to be a sentence. I can't afford to lose you for this whole mission, but I think two week's suspension in your quarters are called for. Which still leaves me without a pilot for the first pivotal part of this mission." 

They both knew this part of the decision was even harder than the one regarding her punishment. There wasn't much of a question who would replace her as the pilot of Voyager, but it also was against protocols and would raise more than a few heads.

"Captain, if I may speak freely?" 

"Please!" 

"No matter which personal difficulties I might have with Mister Paris, his service record shows that despite some bad decisions, he is the best pilot on board. And he knows the badlands. I know how important this mission is and how time sensitive. It has the best chance of success if he is the one replacing me." 

Captain Janeway raised her eyebrows in surprise. 

"Really? You are suggesting the man whose nose you just broke?" 

"I am suggesting the best candidate for the job." 

Stadi held the Captain's gaze. She didn't know her as well as she would like, but she certainly understood that she always tried to do what was best for her ship and her crew. In this case that meant sentencing her very mildly and it even might well mean putting a convicted criminal at the helm. 

The Captain held their eye contact for a few more moments and then broke it off and returned to her seat behind the table to sit down and pick up a padd from the table.

"Thank you Lieutenant. That is all." 

"Yes Captain. Thank you Captain." 

Right before she turned around to go to her quarters, Stadi thought she saw a smile on the Captain's face. 

Well, at least she had gotten off pretty easily. Now she just needed to get to her quarters without running into someone who would ask questions she didn't want to answer. She pointedly ignored the first officer's raised eyebrows and questioning look on her way to the turbo lift. 

On the ride to her deck, she thought about the decision the Captain had made. It had been difficult indeed and it was still difficult. It might even be vital to the outcome of their mission. Stadi knew, like everyone onboard Voyager, that Tuvok was a good friend of the Captain's and that she had pressed for completion of the ship to be able to go on the search for him as soon as possible. 

It was unlikely that she would settle for a lesser pilot than the best to assure the success of the mission. And as much as Stadi hated to admit, Paris was the best, maybe even better than her. 

Not that that had played any role in her hitting him and not that she was very enthusiastic about spending the next two weeks in her quarters, missing vital parts of this mission, but at least Voyager wouldn't have to be without an experienced pilot. 

She was pretty sure Captain Janeway would decide for Mister Paris to pilot the ship. As difficult a decision as that was, it was still the one thing that would most likely assure a positive outcome of the mission. 

Once she arrived in her quarters, Stadi wondered what she could be doing for the next few hours and decided on reading. She didn't want to start on a big project because while it was very unlikely that their mission would go awry, the possibility was still there and she wanted to be available when and if she would be needed. 

After all, there was always the possibility of this whole thing being a trap and the Maquis just waiting for them in the badlands. A ship like Voyager would be a very worthy trophy to them and if the rumors of them amassing their forces were true, they might even be capable of staging a coup. 

But it was sure that if they were planning something it would happen once they were in the badlands, so for the next few hours there wasn't much of a chance for anything to go wrong. 

Stadi took a cup of tea from the replicator and settled down on the couch. Soon she was immersed in her reading. 

The next few hours she only got up to get some food from the replicator and to go to the toilet. It was a little boring and didn't feel very good to be cut off from all happenings on the ship, but she knew she had brought this on herself. 

At some point, the first officer came to tell her how unhappy everyone was with the Captain's decision to make Mister Paris the temporary pilot of Voyager. Stadi was neither surprised that the Captain had decided like that nor that Commander Cavit now wanted to recruit her into some sort of "Mister Paris hate club". 

As much as she hated the guy, slander and outright bullying was not something she would ever participate in, so she respectfully but firmly declined. When the Commander left soon after, she had the distinct feeling that she had made an enemy. Well, wouldn't be the first time. 

Shortly after the Commander left, Stadi got two much more pleasant visitors, the assistant doctor and one of the nurses, Lieutenants Chioma Mokeme and Ajita Jones. She didn't know them very well, but she had seen the doctor once or twice at the academy and both when she arrived and went to sickbay for clearance. 

She definitely felt more at ease with these two than with any of the men onboard when it came to talking about breaking a man's nose for indecent advances, so she was much more willing to talk to them about what had happened than to Cavit. Therefore Stadi asked them inside much less out of just common decency and more out of actual genuine interest. 

They settled on one side of the couch while Stadi sat on the other. 

"So, I guess the doctor send you after Cavit failed to rile me up against our temporary pilot? A sort of sympathy visit while still playing into their goals ultimately?" 

Lieutenant Mokeme laughed, while Jones cocked an eyebrow. 

"Yes, that would be right. Well, actually, that's what the doctor thinks. I suggested it to him because I thought you'd like someone to talk to who actually understands. You know."

"And I tagged along because I thought why not. My shift doesn't start for another half an hour and there's little to do in sickbay until we find the lost ship anyways. We're gonna be on this ship for three weeks, probably after that for other missions, so we might as well get to know each other, right?" 

Stadi smiled.

"I agree. Well, I'm the person who breaks men's noses when they are obnoxious assholes." 

They all laughed.

"You're not the only one there."

Now Stadi raised an eyebrow at Mokeme's statement, who laughed again. 

"What do you think? That just because we both look big and strong, men don't come on to us? Yeah, that would be nice, but not so much. I'm usually just glaring them down but Jones here doesn't respond kindly to obnoxious males at all." 

Jones chimed in, "You've seen that Ferengi toad on Deep Space Nine? He put his hand on mine." 

"Something I wouldn't recommend anyone doing." 

Jones laughed and shook her head. 

"No, me neither. That specific Ferengi had to be treated for three broken fingers. Wish I had ripped that hand right off but I didn't want to cause a diplomatic incident. It wasn't hard to convince everyone that he deserved it but anything more than that, I don't know." 

Stadi looked at Jones with a new found admiration. She would have thought that Mokeme was the one who was most likely to strengthen her arguments with physical action and not Jones, who looked all pudgy and round and cuddly on the outside. 

Well, what was the saying, never judge a book by it's cover. With these two, that was very clearly true. Another thing that was very clear to Stadi by now was that these were exactly the friends she wanted to have. 

They talked some more about obnoxious men at the academy and in Starfleet before switching to the topic of their mission, common experiences at the academy and their lives in general.

Stadi found that she was very comfortable with these two women and soon enough, nearly half an hour was gone and Jones needed to go to report to sickbay. Mokeme also needed to get back, to report to the doctor their unfortunate failure to get Lieutenant Stadi to see the very obvious truth that Lieutenant Paris was evil incarnate. 

What a sad loss, but some people just didn't see what was right in front of their faces, right? 

They all laughed at the thought of the doctor's face after being told this. 

In that moment the ambient lights went dim and the lights under the ceiling started blinking red, accompanied by the Captain's voice through the comm system declaring red alert. 

All three women jumped up, switching immediately to dead serious. None of them had to say anything. They all knew what this meant. But before they could even make it to the door, the Captain's voice sounded again, this time to warn everyone to brace for impact. 

As they had learned in training, they all went as quickly as possible down on the walls, trying to hold onto any stationary furniture available. When the hit came, it was far greater than they could ever anticipate. They all were sent flying through the room, as were knick knacks and even any furniture that wasn't fixed to the floor.

Thankfully, none of them had tried to hang on to those drawers and chairs and none of them were hit by any either. But all of them were very shaken and shocked.

Trying to get her calm back and ascertain if she was injured, Stadi got up slowly. There didn't seem to be any apparent injuries, both her right knee and elbow hurt quite a bit but she didn't think either was broken, just bruised.

She called out to the other two women, who answered shakily but clearly. A quick examination proved that Mokeme's arm was likely broken but other than that, none of them had received anything more than bruising. When it was clear that they were all able to walk and when the comm system stayed quiet instead of announcing more hits, they made it too the door again. There was no need for talking.

Mokeme and Jones headed for sickbay, while Stadi went in the other direction, to the bridge. She knew she should have stayed in her quarters because she was still under confinement but she didn't care. They could court martial her all they wanted afterwards, but now she needed to know what was happening. 

Hurrying through dimly lit, smoky corridors, all showing signs of how badly Voyager was faring, Stadi tried to piece together what had happened. They probably weren't in a firefight, since there had not been any more hits. A plasma storm? Probably, but the damage would be atypical. 

Whatever it was, it had left Voyager crippled and her crew bruised and battered. Everyone she met in the corridors was hurrying to their stations or trying to get to sickbay. She didn't meet anyone who would have needed her assistance, so she headed straight for the bridge. 

Even with having braced herself for the picture that would await her there, it was a shock. Broken conduits hanging from the ceiling, everything drenched in smoke, injured or dead crewmembers still lying there because nobody had had the time yet to take them out. 

Neither the Captain nor the first officer were on the bridge, so Stadi was left with not knowing whom to report to. Ensign Rollins was at tactical and upon seeing her, he gestured her over. She thought he would ask what she was doing there, but he just seemed very relieved to see another senior officer on the bridge, since there seemed to be none here right now. 

"I am glad you are here, Lieutenant. Commander Cavit and Mister Paris are dead. The warp core is about to breach and the Captain went to see what she could do because the Chief Engineer is also dead. We are 75.000 light years from our last position and the Maquis ship we were looking for is also here, but unmanned. 

There also is a really weird structure there that seems to resemble an array. Our scans can't penetrate its hull and we tried hailing it but to no effect. Oh, and sickbay is not responding and Ensign Kim went to check on them." 

All of that was said in a rapid tempo, as if Rollins had to get all of it off his chest really urgently. Stadi needed a few seconds to understand what all of this implied but then did the one thing she knew she could actually do something about, hailing Mokeme to ask about the sickbay situation.

"Stadi to Mokeme." 

"Mokeme here." 

"What is your status?"

"Lieutenant Jones and I are in sickbay. Everyone here is dead. They apparently were surrounding a console when it exploded. We are trying to assess the damage and assist the injured. Thankfully there don't seem to be many serious injuries for a hit of this magnitude. Ensign Kim is here as assistance and so far we can handle the situation." 

Stadi was impressed how calm Mokeme's voice sounded, given that she was talking about the deaths of nearly all of her immediate colleagues. But of course, management of situations like this was one of the highest priorities for Starfleet officers, especially medical personnel. 

"Thank you. Let the Captain know when you need more assistance. Stadi out." 

Stadi turned to Rollins, who was now looking raptly at his controls. 

"Lieutenant, we are being scanned by the array out there. It's penetrating our shields." 

"What kind of-"

There was a flash and suddenly, Stadi was no longer on Voyager's bridge but standing in a grass field in front of what looked like a big farmhouse, with what looked like a human woman in her fifties standing on the front porch inviting everyone in loudly. 

"-scan. What just happened?" 

Rollins took out his tricorder and started scanning the area. 

"I don't know. But we are definitely not back on Earth. We are nearly at our last known position, inside of the array that scanned us. All of this is a holographic projection." 

Stadi now saw other crew members converging on the farm house. 

"We need to find the Captain." 

Rollins kept scanning the area and together they went closer to the house. There was the Captain, surrounded by other crewmembers. 

"Captain!" 

"Lieutenant Stadi! Don't trust your eyes. None of this is real. We have been transported to the Delta Quadrant and that is where we still are." 

"I know. I need to inform you that I disobeyed your order and went to the bridge after Voyager was hit. Ensign Rollins and I were assessing the situation when we got transported over here." 

Captain Janeway raised an eyebrow and cocked her head, a stern expression on her face.

"You disobeyed my orders?" 

"Yes, Captain." 

"Why?" 

"Because I couldn't sit in my quarters knowing that I could be helpful on the bridge. I did not know the extent of the damage Voyager sustained but I knew that it was severe, so I wanted to do my best to help. And staying in my quarters would not have achieved that. I am willing to face up to my crimes whenever we get back to the Alpha Quadrant." 

Janeway's expression had softened during Stadi's speech and now she was actually smiling. 

"I see. I think under the circumstances I will hereby grant you pardon not only from this disobedience but also from your original sentence. It seems I am short on senior officers right now so I need you. I am sure Starfleet will understand that these are extraordinary circumstances." 

"Yes, Captain. Thank you." 

"Now let's find out what all of this is, shall we?" 

Together with the Captain, Stadi turned to the human looking woman who had been pestering them for a while 

There was nothing Janeway could get out of her other than more encouragement to sit down and eat. Then the woman gestured to people coming up the porch – more holograms – whom she called the neighbors. 

Janeway sighed while the new people surrounded them with cheers and music. 

"Spread out! See if all the crew is accounted for. Teams of two to four. Lieutenant Stadi, you're with me." 

Stadi went with the Captain in the direction of the forest, the Captain scanning the area constantly. 

While they were walking, she had time to think about what had happened. She tried to comprehend the gravity of her hitting Mister Paris and Captain Janeway deciding to punish her and give him the pilot seat. What if she hadn't hit Mister Paris? What if Janeway had decided differently? To not punish her at all or to not give Paris the helm? 

Would she be dead now? And what about Mokeme and Jones? If they hadn't visited her, would they have been in sickbay when that console exploded? Would they be dead too? 

Yes, the decision the Captain had had to make regarding her sentencing had been difficult but Stadi was sure that even Janeway hadn't anticipated how grave the consequences would be. 

How much it would change the lives of so many people on Voyager.


End file.
